At Hoover Reservoir today, among what seemed like thousands of ring-billed gulls, I saw a yellow-billed, black-legged, solid black wing tipped gull like bird.  As the Audubon Master Guide to Birding states "winter adults have a gray suffusion across the back of the head and nape," as this bird did.  Could it have been a winter version of a black-legged kittiwake?  In studying the guides....I don't know what else it could have been.  I hope someone else sees it.  It was flying on both sides of the dam...even sitting in the water for a while, where I could see its black legs paddling along.  I think the previously seen immature blacked legged kittiwake could not have grown up this fast.

Dale Brubeck
Worthington, Ohio

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